Female image 1975

This drawing by Hryhorii Havrylenko is made from graphite on paper, a meeting of soft grey tones. Look at the tentative strokes which give form to this female image. You get the impression that the drawing may have been created with a restless energy, capturing something fleeting, the movement of light and shadow across a face. I can imagine Havrylenko, pencil in hand, trying to pin down the essence of the person in front of him, erasing, redrawing, trying to capture the angle of the nose, the set of the eyes, the curve of the hair. It is interesting how such simple materials can evoke so much! When I look at this work, I'm reminded of other portraitists, past and present, each grappling with the same challenge: how to translate the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface, how to capture not just the likeness, but the spirit of a person. We're all in conversation, riffing off each other, building on the foundation of those who came before.